By William Piker
Submitted 2012-04-04 11:17:00
Number Of Times Read: 54
Committee meetings and committees in American businesses. Many people and workers find them a waste of time. Others will shine with pride either at being included in a acronym named group thinking either they are being given an honor , its time off and way from their job or that they just ‘meeting people’ ( that is a type of person who just loves or thrives on these meetings).
The basic concept and that philosophy being the concept of group meetings is that it brings together different as well as disparate skills to honed together solutions that one person would never be able to come to with limited expertise.
Is that so many ask. In many organizations committees function often to limit responsibility of any action. Decisions are often drawn out and when they finally arrive are watered down. Worse yet no one seem to take responsibility when the planned action fails or results do or don not come to fruition.
It’s often with committee produced decisions that the recommendations are more of the result of compromise between the individuals who sit on its membership and the egos involved. It is as if not having conflict on the board rather than the end results matter. On top of that If the planned series of steps recommended ( which more often than not are watered down in end result) result in positive results you can bet that there will be no shortage of individuals who sit on that committee to take great personal responsibility for those actions and recommendations. Whole careers have been built upon taking major credit for positive management and production results of group committee decisions. You have to remember as a tenet that only those members of that group can actually attest to events that occurred on site and no one else. Who is there to dispute the self promoting charges of these self seeking and marketing promoters? On top of that not only are the committee members scattered across the organization , corporation or government department – most being also promoted to greater duties and responsibilities as a result of the successful group decision. Some may even have propelled their careers to promotions to outside organizations as a result of success, either inside or outside the initial industry. Hence no one in terms of logistics and practical logistics will ever be able to refute self serving claims of those wanted to take credit for great and positive results as a result of changes instituted from, and recommendations implemented from committees they sat on.
Yet consider the benefits of committee structure if the reverse occurs. If a committee recommendation results in negative results or is unpopular no one who sits on the acronym named group ever has to or in practical terms has to take responsibility at all.
Who made that recommendation new upper management or stockholders may ask. The answer is invariably “Committee ABCDREDFOX3” and that is the most direct answer that can be had. No one is held responsible or held to task. It was the “Committee”.
At the very worst responsibility is diluted equally (thus reduced) among the full number of participants in this decisions or series of decisions. It’s a similar decision to asking who made the decision to carry off a number of civilians during World War 2. The committee did it and no one is or can be held individually responsible.
This is the beauty of why smaller , more nimble organizations and businesses in 2011 can both react , take on and even overcome competition and potential competition from large companies and organizations who they feel threaten them , their chosen niche markets and indeed their businesses and organizations. While the larger, even multinational organizations have more resources, cash and power than smaller ones they are not nimble in action or effect. They cannot react quickly or decisively. This is why the “small guy” especially one empowered with modern communication tools, computer software programs and services as well as developed systems can still keep their place and indeed flourish in 2011. As a small or even one man person company , service or organization you can do well and even prosper in coming economic times.
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Submitted 2012-04-04 11:17:00
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